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This lesson will introduce students to Babar, an elephant portrayed in the children's books by Jean de Brunhof. Students will listen to Francis Poulenc's musical composition of the same name, written to reflect the scenes in Jean de Brunhof's book. Students will gain an understanding of how powerful the use of simple rhythm instruments is in retelling the story. Students will also create visual works of art based on the sounds they hear in the audio performance.

This lesson will introduce students to the music of composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky and prepare them for a field trip to see The Nutcracker Ballet. Students will write a poem from the images they imagine or visualize while listening to a two selections from The Nutcracker.

This lesson was created for primary age students but can easily be adapted into an intermediate or middle school social studies lesson. Students will explore a period of time when African Americans were striving to make their mark on American music. Ragtime music will be experienced through listening to classics, observing performances, researching the life of Scott Joplin, learning dances, and wearing self-made costumes of the era. They will reflect on the Ragtime music, the struggle of African Americans, and the life skills of successful people who persevere.

This is a simplified version of Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf taught in a developmental delay program for special needs students and English language learners, ages 3 to 6 years. It is easily adapted to meet the needs of older children with the same educational needs. The purpose of the lesson is to provide the students with a variety of experiences performing and telling the story of the fable that Sergei Prokofiev has set to music, and to introduce the students to various instruments of the orchestra.

This lesson is designed to help students understand that Classical music can refer to music composed during a period in music history known as the Classical Period rather than the style of all symphonic music. The students will be given a brief overview of the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern Periods of music. Next, students will learn about the lives of two famous composers of the Classical Period, Beethoven and Mozart.

This lesson compares the tempo of music to the tempo of reading. By having students learn about tempo through music, poems and movement, they will gain an understanding and be able to explain times when they should use a slower or faster tempo when reading.

Students move and listen to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, second movement Andante molto mosso, known as Scene by the Brook, as they imagine taking a journey with Beethoven along a path. They focus on the dynamics and tempo of the music and work to build their own personal image of what it might look like and feel like to take a walk with Beethoven beside a brook. As they listen to the entire Symphony No. 6, students will work in teams to create a visual representation of each movement using oil pastels.

In this lesson, students will learn about the ancient Greek god of music, Apollo, through two pieces of classical music. The students will discuss the role of music in ancient Greece. The students will analyze two musical compositions, Apollo by Igor Stravinsky and Apollo et Hyachinthus by Wolfgang A. Mozart.

Students will identify the character, setting, and plot of the story of Ballet of the Elephants and listen to Circus Polka: For a Young Elephant, composed by Igor Stravinsky for the ballet. Students will then listen to a piece of unidentified music to create their own character, setting, and plot diagram. They will use this diagram to create their own story that includes characters, a setting, and a plot (beginning, middle, and end).

Students will practice and perform a Reader's Theater entitled Salt, a Russian folktale. They will hear a story about the Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and listen to four of his compositions: Swan Lake, Serenade for Strings, Marche Slave, and 1812 Overture. Finally, in groups of five to eight students, they will choose a musical score from these pieces to accompany their section of the Reader's Theater.

Tone is a difficult concept for students to grasp in Language Arts because it is hardly ever specifically stated in the text. Students have a much easier time uncovering emotions in classical music even though it also is never specifically stated. By studying classical music and its use of dynamics and using words that show tone in correlation with dynamics, students will be able to gain a better grasp of the idea of tone in literature. Students will have a working understanding of musical vocabulary that describes the dynamics of a piece of music and how that relates to the overall tone.

In the years following World War I, American composers like Ferde Grofé (1892 – 1972) sought new models of composition to authentically capture the American musical identity. The Grand Canyon Suite (1931) by Grofé reflects a strain of American composition in the 1930's where orchestral works depicted scenes of American life in a modern world. Inspired by the grandeur of the Grand Canyon, Grofé paints a musical impression of a day in the canyon for the listener, translating the beauty of nature into a tangible art form.